Fifteen years ago, President George W. Bush banned the use of federal money for extracting stem cells from human embryos. At the same time, he doubled funding for finding alternative sources. Today, virtually all stem cells used for medical treatments and research come from adult sources and do not involve the destruction of human life.

President Bush’s controversial decision has been vindicated, and it exemplifies the application of moral principles to scientific research. So says Christopher White in Crux. [Read more…]

A study has found a linear relationship between old age and happiness. That is, the older you get, the happier you are.

Despite the deterioration of the body and the whole array of health and mental problems as people age, happiness increases. The linear relationship means that people in their 90s are happier than they were in their 80s, and in their 70s than in their 60s, etc. The biggest miseries are in young adulthood, the supposed prime of life.

I can relate to this. Consider the stress involved in trying to find someone to marry, in trying to find a job, in raising children, in trying to find success in one’s career. Older people are on the other side of all that.

But the continual growth in happiness in the post-retirement decades, that’s a mystery, and no doubt a gift.

Public opinion, government policy, and Supreme Court rulings about LGBT issues has been predicated on the notion that same-sex attraction and having a gender identity different from one’s biological sex are innate, fixed conditions. In the words of the Lady Gaga song, “I was born this way.”

Vermont has a law allowing for physician-assisted suicide. State agencies are interpreting the law so as to require doctors to tell their patients about this option. Also, doctors who don’t want to kill their patients must refer them to another doctor who will.

A number of Vermont doctors have decided to fight these requirements and are suing the regulators that are forcing them to violate the Hippocratic oath. [Read more…]

Some women who get Zika have babies with severe birth defects, but some don’t. In Brazil, some regions plagued with Zika have a huge percentage of babies with microencephaly. But adjoining regions also plagued with Zika don’t. Also, young, black, and poor women are being hit especially hard.

Also of concern: Zika, which is spread by mosquitoes or sexual contact, is being used as a pretext for abortion, even late-term abortions, since microencephaly can’t be diagnosed until late in the pregnancy. Read Zika Outbreak Could Reignite Abortion Debate.